Insurance hiring tips towards carriers after strong broker/agency run

Hiring in the US insurance sector may finally be tipping towards laggard insurance carriers from the agencies and brokerages that had carried the sector's employment recovery to date, data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) suggested.

The broad sector may have gained 5400 jobs in August, a 0.2% monthly gain, initial estimates from BLS indicated. The initial breakdown on that gain will be available in one month's time.

The prior two months’ worth of employment gains proved less exciting than had seemed at first glance, but do show an interesting twist towards carriers.

In the end, the broad industry added 2400 jobs in July, well below the 6200 initially projected after having gained 7300 in June, below the estimate of 8600 at the last adjusted reading.

But the July reading helps cement suggestion that carriers are beginning to carry their fair share of the hiring.

July was only the third time since the pandemic struck in which net employment gains among carriers outweighed the gain in support industries. Running averages have never been closer to parity since the onset of the pandemic.

Life and health carriers have taken the baton to press that gain over the past four months, adding 10,000 jobs.

Non-life carriers look comparatively languid on account of job shedding in title insurance, with grand totals up for three months in 2022 and down for four, for a mild net gain.

But P&C carriers may have put together their fourth straight month of job gains in July for a four-month total of 7200 jobs. P&C direct carriers remain 37,500 jobs below pre-pandemic levels.

Overall, since industry employment bottomed out in mid-2021, brokerages and agencies have added 36,700 jobs net, 78% of the broad industry total. Other support segments offered nearly 12% of the net gain while carriers added only 4600 jobs, accounting for 7.2% of the net gain since the bottom.

Measured against pre-pandemic employment levels, carriers are still down nearly 80,000 jobs while brokers and agencies have picked up 64,000 of the slack.

August's preliminary jobs gain of 5400 compares to a 315,000 gain for total non-farm payrolls across the US. In August, notable job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, and retail trade. Employment in financial activities rose by 17,000 in August and by 200,000 over the year.

The BLS presents employment data on a monthly timetable based on surveys of employers. The statistical estimates are seasonally adjusted, predominantly to account for calendar effects (4-week vs 5-week months in payroll schedules).

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